New legal trouble for Donald Trump
Unfortunately, we’ve been seeing major news corporation after major media outlet fold to the Trump administration – in some cases, before Donald Trump had yet to be sworn in. It’s a disturbing betrayal of trust after seeing much of the media steer stupidly to the right over the last four years. As a result, much of the media has suffered record awful ratings – quite the opposite of where things were during Trump’s first term. Part of this is also feeling the pressure from less traditional forms of media that people are now getting their news from – such as podcasts that are typically heavily polarized in one position or the other.
It was hardly a surprise when Donald Trump announced an executive order – one doomed to fail in court – calling for the defunding of National Public Radio, despite it being a private company. Rather than cower like CBS and CNN are already doing in embarrassing fashion, NPR decided to turn the tables and fight back. Now, NPR is suing the Trump administration for suppressing free speech, arguing that the administration is telling a private company how to do its job in order to qualify for federal funding – the same practice Trump is doing everywhere to his enemies and bragging about it.
This inevitably forces judges to question the legality of what Trump is doing, while also pushing NPR’s competition to print why the administration is being sued and probably question their own practices. It’s never good to obey in advance – but pushback is always important when it happens – and it’s hitting at a time when Donald Trump is rapidly burning his own political capital.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making